This used to be a Sunday insert that came with the local daily paper. I stopped the subscription a while back, hence did not have get Parade for perhaps 10 years. Then, recently the local free paper picked this up, and I now have it. Even so, I happened to be back down in my main metropolitan home, else would miss this.

But back to the question you asked, I thought about starting a thread on this, but wondered if there would be any interest. Now, if you are the only interested person, that alone is worthwhile. And by the way, there might be more, and as we retirees have so much time on hand, I am more than willing to entertain y'all.

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Today was my first official day of retirement... The first monday I did NOT go into work.

My dog and I dropped the kids at the bus to their summer program then picked up my sister (a teacher, so on her summer break) and did a nice 2 mile walk at the local beach. Worked up a sweat - mainly from keeping the dog's leash tight enough to thwart his attempts to catch seagulls.

My plan is to do this at least 3 times a week - indefinitely.
Tomorrow I'll mix it up - hook the dog up to the springer and ride bikes with the kids up to the bus stop for their summer program - then ride over to the local produce market, Sprouts, for some lentils for the dish I want to make tomorrow.

Today was my first official day of retirement... The first monday I did NOT go into work.

My dog and I dropped the kids at the bus to their summer program then picked up my sister (a teacher, so on her summer break) and did a nice 2 mile walk at the local beach. Worked up a sweat - mainly from keeping the dog's leash tight enough to thwart his attempts to catch seagulls.

My plan is to do this at least 3 times a week - indefinitely.
Tomorrow I'll mix it up - hook the dog up to the springer and ride bikes with the kids up to the bus stop for their summer program - then ride over to the local produce market, Sprouts, for some lentils for the dish I want to make tomorrow.

I'm tackling all the deferred projects. This morning's project (after a 3 mile walk with the dog) was to install the magic jack. I've had it for 4 months. Tried to get DH to install it but he never got around to it... so I decided to do it today.

Not complicated - except where our router is is not where our home phones all connect in to. Our old set up had the phone line coming from the phone company block on the side of the house - to a phone wire block on the garage wall - from there 3 hard wired extensions split off. I wanted to keep those extensions. So I needed to run the wire from the router, to this phone block in the garage. That involved fishing the wire through a soffet, then through attic crawl space in the garage.

No biggie - except I had to lean way into the attic space to fish the wire... and when I was backing back out - the ladder tilted out from under me... No broken bones but a few nice bruises where I scraped myself as I fell out of the attic (till I could catch myself on the edge and lower myself down. I'm sure I looked completely ridiculous.

It was fear I'd do something stupid that had me open the garage door before starting - so if I cracked my head open a neighbor might see me bleeding out and call 911. LOL. I always plan for the worst.

Upshot - my landline is now transferred to magic jack and I'm saving money. I have bragging rights with DH over actually getting it done. And ladders are not my friend. LOL

Upshot - my landline is now transferred to magic jack and I'm saving money. I have bragging rights with DH over actually getting it done. And ladders are not my friend. LOL

congrats on getting the job done without killing yourself!

Today, walked 2 miles, session at gym with personal trainer, cut up large branches that fell during storm, dentist appointment (saying goodbye to back tooth next week..just can't hang in there any longer)..

all of this before noon

Bob

__________________

When people ask me "what do you do?" I always answer with "whatever it takes".

My brother does not do much home maintenance work. So, his wife who's a stay-at-home mom has learned to do things that normally fall to the man of the house. I was surprised to learn that SIL could change door locks, and even install new faucets, something that my wife would not know where to begin.

__________________"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky

3. Replaced the alarm system siren (started sounding like a frog had taken over the voice coil). Pain in the butt to get at it as it was behind the inner passenger fender well. I suppose there is a reason for that.

4, Rotated tires while I had the car in the air. Looks like new tires are on the horizon as I am nearing the wear bars.

End of June will be 10K since the last oil/filter change so that is scheduled next. Hot and humid in the garage today. Probably lost some body fluid.

Had a routine doctor appointment yesterday, and my doctor said that all of my lab work was terrific and much improved, as was my blood pressure. I was surprised but welcome that good news. He said I am in very good health. He did not say "for your age" but I assume that is what he meant..

__________________Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harborless immensities.
- - - H. Melville, 1851

Did some mowing with the tractor beside the gravel road to our house- about 1.2 miles. When I finished, I realized I had lost 4 wheel drive, a universal joint that connects the transmission to the front axle had fallen off. After a long hunt for the part that fell off, I was ready to give up and then found it next to the alpaca manure pile. Turns out it must have fallen off the day before but since I didn't need 4 wheel drive for the mowing, never noticed it was gone.

Good news was the joint slipped back on without a problem and I just need to get a new tension pin to hold it on, looks like the original pin rusted through and no longer did the job. An easy fix for a change!

Cleaned the baffles on the range hood. It was installed 4 years ago and is used often, we check regularly to see if there is grease accumulating but hadn't seen any. It was always nice and white (the finish is stainless steel). The other day DW saw what looked like a piece breaking off, tugged at it, and off came a stip of white tape. I pulled out the baffles and confirmed the tape used to protect the finish had never been removed.

The surface was full of grease and stained by the tape glue. I washed them thoroughly with hot soapy water, which got the grease off but not the stain. Ran through the dishwasher, which helped a bit. Tried a few other things, nothing worked, so DW washed them with goo gone, which worked perfectly, but left them smelling like kerosene, probably not good for something involved with cooking. I washed them again with hot soapy water, and now they are fine.

We haven't figured out yet why neither of us noticed that the white color on a stainless steel finish meant further investigation was required. When the kids find out they'll never let us hear the end of it.

Had my first full ophthalmologist eye exam since my cataract surgery (16 and 15 months ago).

Great report: lenses are perfectly placed in the capsules, pressure is good, no problems at all. No sign of secondary cataract development. Although that's always possible, it can be quickly and simply resolved by zapping it with a special laser.

Tested nearly 20/20 for distance vision (missed by one letter in one eye, two letters in the other).

Now at last I can completely stop worrying about it and just enjoy driving without glasses!

Had my first full ophthalmologist eye exam since my cataract surgery (16 and 15 months ago).

Great report: lenses are perfectly placed in the capsules, pressure is good, no problems at all. No sign of secondary cataract development. Although that's always possible, it can be quickly and simply resolved by zapping it with a special laser.

Tested nearly 20/20 for distance vision (missed by one letter in one eye, two letters in the other).

Now at last I can completely stop worrying about it and just enjoy driving without glasses!

None. The slight annoyance of finding the right pair of readers (reading distance, computer distance, etc.) is so trivial compared to the joy of mostly doing without glasses that I'm a totally happy camper.

None. The slight annoyance of finding the right pair of readers (reading distance, computer distance, etc.) is so trivial compared to the joy of mostly doing without glasses that I'm a totally happy camper.

My brother does not do much home maintenance work. So, his wife who's a stay-at-home mom has learned to do things that normally fall to the man of the house. I was surprised to learn that SIL could change door locks, and even install new faucets, something that my wife would not know where to begin.

I was a single homeowner till I got married when I was 38. I had to learn to do stuff. Plus I'm an engineer. I'm too cheap to hire people if it's something I can figure out.

I'll admit - there are some jobs I won't tackle. I'm not confident soldering plumbing joints with the torch. DH can do that. But I can take a trap apart and clean it out, I can change out a faucet, I can do basic wiring - but my drywall skills suck - so I let DH do most of the fishing of wire, etc. Yesterday was an exception because most of the run was in crawl spaces (soffit, to an existing hole to the garage crawl space.)

DH is much better at carpentry, framing, woodwork in general. Not to mention drywall. He's even mastered exterior stucco matching. But he worked construction in summers while studying to be an architect... so he has real life professional experience.

I just came back from an errand to Costco to stimulate the economy. They offer a $70 rebate for a set of Michelin tires, so I got them for the car. Now, both the motorhome and the toad got new tires. I am all set for that long cross-country trip.

__________________"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky

I was a single homeowner till I got married when I was 38. I had to learn to do stuff. Plus I'm an engineer...

I have to say that an engineering degree does not mean much when it comes to practical matters. There are plenty of EE graduates, male and female, whose last time they held a soldering iron was in an electronic lab in school. Oh wait, some might never have held an iron, as they often use these breadboards in school labs. And then, many now just work with computer software, so they do not deal with "nuts and bolts" at all.

__________________

__________________"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky

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